


Let The Lion Carry You On Her Back

by Leonawriter



Series: Lion Carry You [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Autistic Keith (Voltron), F/M, Galra Keith (Voltron), Galrans, Gen, Pre-Canon, Probably AU once season 2 airs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 08:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9227627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: It's only by chance that Thace finds the Blue Lion before the rest of the Galra Empire. It's only circumstance that he has a son that isn't good at keeping secrets well enough to live the life of an undercover rebel's child. The two do, however, go together incredibly well.It's a good thing the Blue Lion is most compassionate - as well as the most open to strange suggestions.





	

"Do you think we did the right thing?" It had been a week since the naming ceremony, and they now had a bundle of scrawny Galra youngling sharing their room, claws not yet sharp enough to do anything other than prod and poke, eyes not yet ready to open. "Giving him a soft name. So many nowadays have hard names, for warriors. Galrans who don't live up to that... they tend to stick out."

Which he had learned well enough from his own childhood. 

"But Kethe  _is_ a warrior's name, Thace. Anyone who knows what it means will know that."

Thace sighed. 

"I'll admit, that's another thing I'm worried about." From his place in his crib, Kethe chuffed quietly in his sleep, hopefully from pleasant dreams. His first fur was still growing in, so only his ears were truly visible from beneath the blankets intended to keep him warm even on the coolest night. "Our position is tenuous enough with my line of work. If anyone questions us too closely..."

He closed his eyes and tried to breathe evenly, to ward off the oncoming visions of Zarkon's men storming into his home, taking his life-partner and his child. Execution for one, and indoctrination for the other. 

The two of them had been _lucky,_ so far. Lucky to have been able to keep their heads, to not be fooled by the propaganda of Zarkon's empire. Lucky to have stumbled upon the rebel cell - or, to be more exact, to have been approached.

"Hush. They won't. Why would they? Neither of us are anything special. You're just a private in the army, and I'm an accountant back on Galra you hardly even  _see_ because you're shipped off-planet so often. And now you'll hardly get to see either of us, not just me."

If the tone she was taking was supposed to make him feel guilty, it was certainly doing its job. He turned back toward her, and leaned his head on her shoulder with a smile he wished was more genuine than it was. He could tell by the way she held him so tightly, however, that she knew exactly how he felt - that she felt it, too, but she was trying not to let the fear overtake her. To keep some kind of hold on hope.

_We're just two people. A handful or so, scattered every so often in the known galaxy, whose rebellions are either loud or quiet. It isn't much, but we do what we can._

_But Zarkon has been ruling for over ten thousand years by now. Pockets of rebellion aren't ever going to be enough. And the last time anyone tried to create a large-scale army, a few centuries ago... we're still suffering from that defeat, even now._

His heart beat faster as he realised that, yet again, his thoughts had strayed toward a dangerous subject - the idea that perhaps they needed something stronger than any number of rebel cells, stronger than a whole fleet of battleships. The kind of warrior that only  _legends_ spoke of... that Zarkon wanted above all else.

...

By the time five cycles had passed, it wasn't Kethe's  _name_ that was the problem. The druids had begun to take an interest in their boy, and it was becoming quickly apparent that Kethe didn't have the temperament for working undercover that his parents had. 

He wasn't just too young. He was too outspoken, too angry, and just didn't seem to  _understand_ when it happened to not be a good time to say something truly  _dangerous_ \- they'd had to fast talk themselves out of far too many situations that could have turned sour very quickly, and it was starting to give both of Kethe's parents the kind of stress that they were worried their fur would start to grow out grey, one of these days, and they'd be mistaken for a druid themselves.

It's pure luck that Thace lands a recon mission to a blue planet with three other crewmates who also happen to be rebels, or rebel sympathisers. It means he can let his guard down, just a bit - not completely,  _never_ completely - but it also means that when they find the carvings, one of them brushing aside old mud to see angular lines that all came together to form an image the likes of which would usually only be talked of with caution, with at least one person wondering if it was even  _real._

it took them most of a day to clear away the rest of the walls, uncovering the markings and sometimes making wrong turns, never quite sure that they were going in the right direction when there were multiple turnings and never certain that the Lion would even still  _be_ there.

It was, however. When they cleared the last turning, there it was - as tall as the ceiling, taller than most multi-storey buildings back home, and on top of that, completely unresponsive. It was almost as though the great Blue Lion were nothing more than a larger-than-life statue, standing guard in front of a mound of mud and stone.

While the others began to talk among themselves, asking each other what they were going to do, how they were going to keep this a secret from Zarkon or even if they  _should_ \- if another patrol found the Lion, then surely they would be found out if they didn't say anything? - Thace considered his own options.

The great blue particle barrier certainly seemed impenetrable, but if he could just...

He heard a shout from one of the others, but his ability to comprehend the words out of the noise was compromised when, as he touched the barrier-

_Curious who are you? Anger. Gone. Hurt, still hurting. Gone. What do you want? Not mine. Not Paladin._

He gasped, at the sudden intrusion into his head, the rush of  _ideas_ rather than  _thoughts_ that came at him in a matter of ticks. He blinked, just to check that - yes, the barrier was still up.

The same part that was sure that he was going to regret ever coming up with crazy ideas on a gut feeling, was also sure that he would probably end up in hysterics over this  _later_. When he had the time and opportunity. But not now. He didn't have the time  _now._

"Thace, what're you  _doing?_ _"_ he heard from a few feet away, a friend he had fought alongside and probably knew him well enough that his worry was well-founded. 

"I... have an idea," he said, claw still touching the barrier, not knowing whether it would change things if he took his hand away. "If this works, then it will go well for  _all_ of us. Even if the planet is discovered later and thoroughly examined. But it will require everyone to do their part."

 _Even the Lion_ , he thought, and the fur on the nape of his neck stood somewhat on end underneath his armour when he felt  _curiosity_ being pushed into his head.

He swallowed, half expecting everyone to reject his plan immediately and call him  _selfish_ , but no one did.

...

They sent the report back that the planet was uninhabited save for a few native species of fauna and flora, but was capable of maintaining life. Which would likely have it noticed for entirely different reasons.

Then, the moment he was back on Galra, they began to set the rest of the plan in action. 

Thace was charged with the hard task of convincing his family to agree to the treasonous idea, something that would have them all killed if they were found out. He half expected to have it be greeted with a fight, to have his life-partner tell him that there was no way that she would ever agree to such a thing - instead, she allowed him to explain it all, down to the very last detail, and then, after asking if he was being completely serious with her, that this wasn't a  _joke_ , collapsed into his arms, tears flowing down her face.

"He'll be safe" _,_ he remembered telling her, wanting to convince himself as much as he wanted her to believe it, "but we won't be able to see him again _._ "

Kethe was the hardest to convince.

The boy clung to his mother's leg the moment he realised what was going on, spitting and growling that he didn't want to  _go,_ a sight that nearly broke his father before the deed was even done, nearly broke his will to be able to do it at all. 

Thace had knelt down, taken his son in his arms, and held him close, wishing that he wouldn't have to let go.

"We love you, Kethe. Never forget that. We love you so much. But we want you to be  _safe._ And this... this is the only way either of us could think of to  _keep_ you safe."

The three of them left on what one of their allies had keyed into the databases as a family outing, a holiday of sorts, using a simple shuttle to a known system. They would supposedly have a navigational system malfunction, and end up elsewhere - and on the way back, they would be without their son. 

Perhaps if Kethe were older, people might question his disappearance more. But given his young age, and his tendency to rush into things headlong without thinking or talking with others first, no one would suspect it would be anything other than a tragic accident. And their grief, no matter that their son would be actually  _alive_ and not  _dead_ , would be no less  _real._

...

Somehow, as long as he'd been able to focus on the fact that he and his mama and papa were going away somewhere together, as long as he tried to forget what was actually going on, Kethe was okay. 

At some point, he forgot entirely, and even smiled along with everyone when they congratulated his papa for being such a good soldier that he could get a week off with his family, and he looked up the place they were supposed to be going to on the family communications units, and he eagerly joined in as they packed for the trip, not understanding the way his parents didn't seem quite as excited as he was when no one else was looking.

He didn't know how the shuttle's systems worked well enough yet to understand when they changed course, only that it'd take longer to get there - and then, suddenly, there was a commotion, and the radios shut off entirely.

For a while, he sat nervously in his seat, wondering what had gone wrong, until his father twisted around in the pilot's seat, completely relaxed and at ease, telling him  _it's okay, Kethe, everything's going to plan. Remember what we told you?_ _You're going somewhere that you'll be safe._

They landed on a planet that was nowhere near as fun as the one they'd told everyone they were going to. On the plus side, though, it was starting to feel like an adventure - the kind of adventure that his Papa told him whenever he was home, of explorations and pretending to be bad while actually being good, and hunting down legends. Especially when they found the first of the engraved markings, still covered in mud and dirt in places.

"It's this way," his father said, as he led them through the tunnels, carefully picking their way so that they didn't trip over vines and roots and slippery stones jutting out of the path.

"We're here," his father whispered, their voices echoing in the vast cavern they had all found themselves in.

Kethe had heard stories about Voltron and its Lions. Some of the other children he'd met and played with had boasted that  _they_ would be a pilot good enough to take down  _Voltron itself_ , never even  _mind_ a single Lion on its own. Looking at the blue mechanical animal in front of him now, however, he wondered about that, and thought that maybe  _none_ of them would be able to, and that maybe the ship in front of him would be able to take down  _anything_ , even one of the big battle cruisers.

"This is my son," he heard his father say, hand up to the blue particle barrier protecting the lion from anything getting in or out. Kethe wondered why his father was talking  _to_ the ship. Most pilots did, but his Papa seemed to be thinking like the ship could talk  _back_. "He's the one I want you to take with you."

For a good long minute nothing happens, and Kethe stares, and worry starts to make him bite his lip. He'd wanted to just go home, but - if this went wrong - what if it  _did_ go wrong, and they had to explain everything? He'd have to pretend he'd never seen the Lion at all, that he'd never been here, that he didn't know where 'here' was, and he wasn't  _good_ at keeping secrets. He just  _wasn't._

He starts to sniff, his eyes scrunching up as his mind goes around and around in a spiral of how badly things could go wrong, and not knowing what he  _wants_ , and the fact that no matter what happens, he's probably going to lose his parents for good.

He isn't watching the Lion when the barrier comes down. He only knows because his mother kneels down and picks him up, drying his eyes and stroking the longer fur on the top of his head in soothing gestures.

"It'll be okay, Kethe. Go on."

She looked over his head towards his father, who nodded, but even  _he_ looked nervous when the Lion started  _moving_ , and its head was coming down as though it was about to  _eat_ them-

Only to open its mouth, a ramp coming down to let them in. 

Wonder overtook him once again, curiosity and amazement winning out over everything else as his father gave him the bag full of provisions and the bag full of other things he might need - clothes, markers, pads, in case he couldn't understand anyone when he got to wherever the Lion took him.

He was put in the pilot's chair, small legs dangling free of the ground and barely able to think about climbing off or getting back up on his own, and then he was being kissed on his forehead, and then there was a touch on his mind that said  _careful_ and  _dangerous for small ones_ and he was  _moving_.

He turned around, grinning, to tell his father how amazing the view was, how fast they were going, only to realise that he was now  _alone_ , that the Lion's presence was the only other thing in here, and that they were now bounding out into the open air, and now they were taking off, and now they were breaking through the atmosphere, the planet's surface getting further and further away as the urge to cry became too much to handle. 

"I- I wanna go back," he sobbed out, salty tears making his fur clump up uncomfortably, "I want to go  _home_. Take me back  _home."_

But they didn't slow down, and the stars kept racing past.

 _Understanding_ flooded him.  _Care, miss them, wish we could,_ trickled through. He cried harder than before.

 _Protect you_ came through in waves that felt like they would sweep him off his feet if he wasn't careful. The feeling almost reminded him of his mother holding him tightly.  _Told to protect you, little cub. Not my Paladin,_ came more ideas. It wasn't like when he tried explaining himself with words. It was more like what he wished speaking with words  _was_ like. He caught an impression of  _gone_ , of  _lost_ , and then -  _carry you away safely._

He fell asleep curled up in the chair.

...

The journey might have not taken too long, but it  _felt_ like it did, even if it didn't. Kethe could be found having half climbed and half fallen off the seat he'd been sleeping in, looking through the bags that had been stowed away in the corners of the cockpit. 

He was careful not to get crumbs on the floor, and if they  _did_ fall, he tried his best to pick them up, like his Mama had always told him not to make a mess and not to waste his food, but mainly because he was inside the Lion's  _head_ , and it'd be  _rude_ to be messy in someone's  _head._

But when they passed yet another planet that they didn't set down on, blue and icy looking and not the kind of place Kethe would want to settle down on  _anyway_ , he brought out the pens and the pad, and began to draw.

First, he took out the purple marker, and drew the three of them, two larger purple people, one for his Mama and one for his Papa, and then one smaller one in the middle, naming them all with the letters he'd learned how to use already. Big, and wonky, but definitely readable.

When he'd finished and they weren't stopping anytime soon, he drew one of what he imagined Zarkon looked like on a new page, an angry purple and black scribble coming after the smaller purple Galrans.

At some point, between one planet and the next, he ran out of space in the pad, or forgot to turn the page but just kept carrying on, and now there were blue marks on the otherwise spotless area toward the back of the cockpit, near where he'd come in, and when he felt a presence at the edge of his mind again, like his Mama tapping a claw on his bedroom door, all full of curiosity, he tried to explain.

"I'm drawing you, see? That's your head, and those are your front claws, and those are your back claws, and that's your tail. And that little purple dot right  _there_ in your head is me, see? 'Cause next to you, I'm  _that_ small."

...

Seeing the planet Blue was hovering over up close was a completely different experience to anything else, to seeing any other planet going by the windows at all. This time, he could practically see the  _trees,_ all green, and the water so _blue_ , and land where nothing was growing was so  _brown._

He barely had time to ask if this was where they were going to hide, before Blue started to bound toward the planet's atmosphere, giving him only ticks to find a good spot to sit and hold on while they went in and down like a meteor.

Stopping, he found, was a lot harder than flying _or_  falling. It was full of bumps and bouncing and, given he wasn't in the chair this time, there wasn't anything soft to cushion the hard jolts.

...

Exploring would take a while longer. First, he had to come to terms with the fact that he couldn't just  _stay_ there with the Lion. Because the Lion,  _Blue_ , had become the only thing left of where he'd come from other than the food he'd nearly gone all the way through on the journey, and the other provisions that'd been packed for him - including the knife he'd found at the bottom of the bag, the familiar shape of it and his family crest on the hilt a constant reminder of  _home._

Leaving the Lion meant going out onto a strange planet, not knowing what was safe, not knowing if the aliens would be friendly, or knew about Galrans, and no matter if they did or didn't, Zarkon might be coming for  _him._

He put it off as long as he could. He knew the Lion was good and friendly - they'd been friends for a while after all, hadn't they? - but he didn't  _know_ anything else.

Eventually, though, he made hesitant steps toward the way out.

As he went through the tunnels, he remembered how his parents had found the Lion in the first place, and brushed dirt off the walls to make a clean surface, using his claws as the lines and the now nearly dry markers to colour them in. First he drew Blue again, flying through space, an improvement of the last time he'd drawn her. Then he drew the way that there'd been fire surrounding them so that he'd hardly been able to see anything else, the light burning his sensitive eyes for a while as they came down through the atmosphere. And, lastly, he drew a figure coming out - but by that point, the markers had finally dried up, leaving his last figure without any colour.

 _There,_ he thought,  _if they come looking, they'll be able to find me, now._

_..._

Humans were strange and scary, at first. They reminded him a lot of what he'd always been taught Alteans looked like, all pink and brown with small ears and no fur except on their heads, and no claws that could really be called  _claws_. They didn't speak Galran  _at all_ , either, so Kethe couldn't understand a word they were saying when he listened in on their conversations.

All of which was bad enough, but then it sounded like one of them was coming closer to his hiding spot, and it wasn't easy to keep calm and not panic, like he'd been told to do, because what if they screamed? What if they didn't understand he wasn't dangerous, like he'd heard happened sometimes with alien species, where a Galran would defend themself from a scared youngling that only saw the - to them - dangerous aliens as a  _threat._ And right now,  _he_ was that scared youngling.

 _I have to not be scary,_ he started thinking to himself.  _I have to not be scary._

Sometimes back home, he'd been able to pretend he wasn't there, and his parents would spend  _ages_ looking for him, to the point where he fell asleep in his hiding place and no one found him until they went to put something on top of him, or walk through him. 

That had been fun, usually. Especially once he'd figured out how he was doing it. 

This, though - this wasn't fun. His eyes were watering again as he tried to focus, and all he had to focus on was the effort he was putting in to the idea of  _not being scary_ and of  _fitting in_. 

When the first human came, a human one, first he tensed up, hands going at the ready for a fight, but then he sagged with relief when he realised that her shouting wasn't in anger but it sounded more like his Mama had when she'd finally found him, concern and worry in her voice even though he couldn't understand a word of what she was saying.

When he looked at his hands, he realised that instead of their normal purple, they were now  _pink_ \- and not just pink, but  _soft_.

...

He was now inside a moving vehicle, the bounces it made on the dry desert reminding him of what it'd been like while Blue was landing. He clutched his bag, the last thing he had that was  _his_ , with only his family blade inside it now, close against his chest.

The woman from before talked at him with her strange language.

He blinked at her. She turned to someone else - a man, he thinks - and says something, and they talk for a moment, before she turns back to him, still smiling, still reminding him of his Mama who  _isn't here._

She says something else, the sound of the words different, but no more understandable.

Kethe holds his bag tighter, wanting to cry but not wanting to do so in front of these strange people.

There's another noise, which makes him look up again, and he finds that she's pointing at herself.

"Eyehm Karen," she says. He blinks. "Karen," she repeats.

Was that supposed to be her name? If it was-

"Kethe! I'm Kethe!"

There's a fast and jubilant chatter from the humans, and he wonders if they'd started to think that he couldn't talk  _at all_ , because he  _can_ , he just can't talk  _human._

"Keith, is it? All right, then!"

He blinks again, this time a bit frustrated, because that isn't his name - it's short, and it's harsher, and it doesn't sound like it means the same thing. He points to himself again and repeats his  _name_ , rather than the other word. 

It doesn't work. The humans keep saying his name wrong, and they still do even when he's started learning enough of their language to try to figure out how to say it's wrong. By that point, they  _have_ at least been able to figure out that he doesn't have a family, not anymore, not _here_ , and he needs somewhere to go, and he needs something to eat, because he's  _hungry_.

At some point, he realises that they think his parents are _dead_. He panics, trying to explain that they  _aren't_ \- they just aren't  _here_ , but it only makes them more set in their idea, which only starts to make him think about what they'd been saying before they left, how dangerous this would be, how if it didn't work then maybe  _none_ of them might survive, and it makes him wonder if they might be  _right._

If they were _right_ , he might never see his parents again. He might never see  _home_ again. Home might be dangerous but it was still  _home._

 __If they were right, then _this_ was now his home. This planet. These  _people._

He shivered, feeling the suddenly biting cold, and Karen held out a blanket that he could wrap around himself, the fabric feeling strange against human fingers, but he holds it close all the same. 

**Author's Note:**

> In case it isn't clear - Keith creates the drawings on the walls that he calls 'ancient' in the pilot episode (I'm gonna say that due to desert conditions they only look ancient due to the weathering of 12-13 years) and Blue herself created the ones that actually, y'know, glow. And don't ask how she gets inside that place, I don't even know how most of them get in their hiding places in canon, to be honest.
> 
> Also, here in this story Galrans can be trained in how to be a druid, and some can have an aptitude, but you don't necessarily need a druid parent to be a druid or have their capabilities yourself.
> 
> On the subject of 'but neither Thace nor Keith are Blue's Paladin, so how do they get inside?' the answer is this - Blue LETS them in. And there's a clear understanding of 'you aren't my Paladin, but you're asking nicely, so I'm doing this of my own free will'. Also - notice that at no point do either Thace or Keith touch the controls. It's ALL Blue's piloting, here.


End file.
